Future Methods of Promoting Religion in Cyberspace: Analyzing Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate and analyze the opportunities and challenges facing religious propaganda methods in cyberspace, focusing on Instagram and Twitter platforms. With the increasing expansion of social networks and changes in audience behavior patterns, traditional religious propaganda methods have become increasingly in need of rethinking and innovation.
Accordingly, this study is of an applied type and has a forward-looking exploratory-descriptive approach, and data has been collected through the Delphi method. The statistical population of the study consisted of 15 experts and preachers familiar with cyberspace in the first round and 12 in the second round. The data was analyzed using statistical indicators of mean and standard deviation to determine the importance of the components and the level of consensus of the experts.
The findings show that “miniaturization of space and tendency towards superficial and short content” with the highest mean ( M = 3.66, SD = 1.15 ) is the most important future challenge in the field of religious propaganda methods on Instagram and Twitter. After that, “the emergence of advertising celebrities and their influence” (M=3.58), (SD=1.16), and “the need to produce personalized religious advertising based on detailed audience analysis” (M=3.41, SD=0.99) were identified as challenges of high importance. “The increasing complexity of message transmission routes” with a lower mean (M=3.16, SD=1.03) is less important, but still poses a significant structural challenge. In the section of opportunities related to future methods of religious propaganda, “user-centeredness of messages and active participation of audiences” was identified as the most important opportunity with the highest mean and the highest consensus of experts (M=3.75, SD=0.97). Also, “increasing religious advertising in the form of short videos” (M=3.50, SD=1.17) and “increasing the creativity and skills of preachers and changing their role to activists” (M=3.41, SD=0.99) were identified as challenges of high importance. Religious communication (M=4.08, SD=0.67) is another key opportunity for the future.
Overall, the results show that the future of religious propaganda in cyberspace is more dependent on content, behavioral, and methodological developments in interaction with audiences than on changes in technological tools, and its success will require innovation in methods, improving the media skills of propagandists, and paying attention to the real needs of the audience.